Michel Barthel
Michel François Barthel (August 24, 1918 - June 30, 2007) was a Luxembourgish volunteer officer, partisan resistance fighter, and soldier who fought in World War II and the Korean War. Early life and family Barthel was born in the town of Larochette in Luxembourg. The family was working-class, and his father was a police officer with the Grand Ducal Gendarmerie. He initially wanted to become a policeman like his father, and applied for a position, but was offered a position in the military, which he graciously accepted in 1936. Military service and resistance World War II Barthel was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Volunteer Company of the Gendarmes and Volunteers Corps, Luxembourg's only real military force. His first assignment was to attend classes at the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium. After studying at the academy for two years, Lieutenant Barthel returned to Luxembourg. Though Luxembourg intended to remain neutral in the new conflict, September 1939 began a tense time for the country. Military and political figures feared provoking the Germans, hampering Luxembourg's defensive efforts. The Schuster Line, the only real defense, was poorly manned and poorly fortified. On May 10, 1940, the German Army invaded Luxembourg. Lieutenant Barthel had taken up sentry duty personally, and when a German armored column drove up to his roadblock, he ordered them to stop and then fired on the Germans when they did not. Helping another soldier, he sabotaged and destroyed the bridge before escaping. Making his way back to the volunteers' barracks in Luxembourg City, he tried to mobilize the unit to defend their positions, but to no avail. The company was confined to its barracks, and would not move. Barthel joined a group of gendarmes in an attempt to hold the city, but it soon fell after only a modest German attack. The invasion was over and the Germans occupied the whole of the country with ease in under a day. Barthel surrendered to the Germans along with the rest of the Luxembourgish police and soldiers in the capital. After the invasion, life changed very little for him. Due to his privileged officer's status, he was free to walk around the city and was not taken prisoner. The volunteers, although confined to their barracks, were not disbanded and remained intact as a military unit. Barthel did not think much of the occupation as it happened and continued with his day-to-day duties. He was treated well, and initially saw no reason not to go along with the change in government. In December 1940, however, the German authorities announced that the Volunteer Company was to be disbanded and its soldiers to be trained as German police. Barthel refused and was subsequently discharged from the company, and his attitudes about the occupiers changed. He was convinced by a group of friends to move to Echternach and to join a newly-formed local resistance group there. The Luxembourgish Patriot League had only been active for a few months, and its members were focused on spreading word of the country's increasing levels of resistance. Important efforts were made to keep the identities of the group's membership secret, as German authorities had already started cracking down on dissent in the country. By 1941, the LPL had stepped up its activities. Barthel took part in propaganda distribution, intelligence gathering, and even seizing weapons from police stations. Soon, the LPL had clandestine cells all throughout Luxembourg, but the organization's headquarters remained in Echternach. Barthel and the other resistance members began printing newspapers and helping refugees, including many evading service in the German Army, escape to France and Belgium. In October 1941, a declaration was issued that a referendum would be held to determine whether or not Germany would annex Luxembourg. In the days and weeks leading up to the referendum, Barthel and the other LPL members mobilized massive amounts of the population to vote against the annexation, despite widespread intimidation tactics used by the Germans to discourage a vote for independence. The Luxembourg resistance had struck the first real blow against the Germans through their defeat of the referendum, and the LPL's ranks swelled. In 1942, the LPL continued its usual schedule of resistance activities, mostly consisting of various types of sabotage and propaganda distribution. Extreme care had to be taken, as the Germans had increased their arrests of suspected resistance members. On August 30, 1942, the puppet government announced that all Luxembourgish men of a certain age range would be conscripted into the German Army. The LPL had to act, and, in concert with resistance organizations throughout the country, mobilized thousands of Luxembourgish workers in the 1942 Luxembourgish general strike the day after the declaration. By early September, the Germans had cracked down hard, arresting and in many cases executing the strike leaders. The strike had been repressed brutally, but the country's resolve hardened and it became clear to the Germans that the Luxembourgish people were wholly committed to fighting them. Throughout the rest of 1942 and 1943, the LPL continued fighting the Germans in whatever way it was able. Barthel hid several Allied pilots as well as Jewish refugees in his home in Echternach and helped them escape the country, even as a wave of arrests decimated the LPL. By 1944, the tide of the war in Europe was turning. Not only did the level of resistance increase, but it became centralized under one command. In March, the LPL merged with several other resistance groups to form the Union of Freedom Organizations, or Unio'n. The resistance had at the time been weakened by frequent raids and arrests of its members by German security forces, and a central authority was needed. The other goal of the merger was to create a governing body for Luxembourg when the occupying forces inevitably left. In September 1944, American forces arrived and liberated Luxembourg. The Germans left in a hurry and did not put up any resistance to the Allies as they established new defensive positions in Germany. With the liberation, the former resistance groups began to form militias equipped by the Americans. Barthel formed a small group of ten resistance fighters, and they travelled northeast to the German border to guard it against a possible counterattack. Later that month, they arrived in the town of Vianden on the Our River and set up a base of operations in the old Vianden Castle along with a local militia. Their job here was to spot German troop movements from the castle's elevated position and report them to local Allied forces. In November, Barthel and his militiamen ambushed a German patrol before retreating to fortified positions. In the Battle of Vianden, a large German force attacked the town and the castle, and the numerically inferior Luxembourgers held their ground and stopped the assault, driving the Germans back across the river into Germany. The victory would not last, however, as the Germans began a massive counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge in December, and Barthel and his men had to retreat from the town. From December 1944 through February 1945, Barthel and the Luxembourgers assiste the American forces wherever they could, serving as a reconnaisance unit to the US 4th Infantry Division. When Luxembourg had been liberated a second time, Barthel travelled to Luxembourg City for the celebrations. On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered, ending the war in Europe with an Allied victory. Occupation of Germany and the Cold War Now that Luxembourg had been liberated, it needed a military force to support its government. Barthel was specifically requested to come to the town of Walferdange, where he was appointed a platoon commander in the new 1st Infantry Battalion. His service record as both a volunteer officer and a resistance member had more than qualified him for the position. After Germany's surrender to the Allies, the country was occupied by the armed forces of the powers which had defeated it. In November 1945, it was announced that the Luxembourg Army would be given a zone of occupation in the French sector of the country. Lieutenant Barthel and the rest of the 1st Battalion was deployed to Saarburg, where they undertook occupation duties. In 1948, the battalion was withdrawn back to Luxembourg. Korean War On June 25, 1950 the North Korean Army invaded South Korea. The United Nations immediately responded by calling on all its member states to send a military contingent to form a unified force to defend South Korea. Belgium established a battalion to be deployed in Korea within the next year, and the government of Luxembourg announced that it would send a small platoon-sized contingent to be a part of this battalion. Lieutenant Barthel soon volunteered for service, and he was appointed to command the 1st Luxembourgish Detachment. The Luxembourgers joined the Belgians for joint training in Leopoldsburg, and the detachment was designated the 1st Platoon, A Company, Belgian Battalion. In January 1951, the battalion sailed to South Korea. Once in Korea, the Belgians and Luxembourgers were attached to the British 29th Independent Infantry Brigade. After a short period in the rear of the line, the battalion was called up to the front in April 1951. They were sent to reinforce Allied troops already fighting the Communist Chinese in the Battle of the Imjin River. Once they were engaged, Lieutenant Barthel and his men held the right of the UN line on the river, stopping the Chinese attacks. Overwhelmed and outnumbered, the Luxembourgers and Belgians conducted a fighting withdrawal from their positions to the center of the Allied line in a delaying action which made possible a successful UN retreat. Lieutenant Barthel and the rest of the battalion returned to brigade reserve after the fighting. Barthel, for his part in the battle, was promoted to captain and served directly on the battalion staff. In October, the battalion was again deployed on the front line, this time a part of the US 3rd Infantry Division, and joined an offensive codenamed Operation Commando. Later in the month, the battalion took up positions on an isolated hilltop called Hill 391. In the Battle of Haktang-ni, the Chinese launched assault after assault on the Belgian and Luxembourg defenders, but Captain Barthel and the soldiers repulsed the enemy, counterattacking successfully whenever they lost ground. They continued the offensive in Operation Polecharge, capturing a number of hills from the Chinese and advancing the UN line along with the American forces. After this action, the Belgians and Luxembourgers would simply maintain the line, not launching any major offensives nor facing any from the enemy. The stalemate between the UN and Communist armies had set in, and it would remain for the rest of 1951, 1952, and most of 1953. Captain Barthel remained in his position in the battalion, even as the Luxembourg detachment left for home and was replaced by another contingent. The battalion, stationed in the area of the front known as the Iron Triangle, was moved to defend the village of Chatkol. Peace talks, which had been ongoing since before the stalemate, pushed the Communist and the UN forces to seek to expand their positions with which to bargain for more at the negotiation table. One such attack by the Chinese was launched in February 1953 on the battalion's position, beginning the Battle of Chatkol. Captain Barthel and his men repulsed multiple Chinese assaults, eventually being overrun but counterattacking every time to retake their positions. The fighting was fierce, and it continued relentlessly throughout March and well into April. At a heavy cost, the Belgians and Luxembourgers had held onto their objectives and beat back a numerically superior Communist force. The battalion was soon rotated to the rear. On July 27, 1953, the joint declaration at Panmunjom began an armistice which would bring peace to the Korean peninsula, if not resolution to the conflict. Captain Barthel, having served honorably, was discharged from UN service and sent home. End of service Late in 1953, Captain Barthel was given a new assignment. The 2nd Infantry Battalion, stationed in Germany, was set to return to Luxembourg. He was to be assigned to the battalion and aid the withdraw, helping with the transition of the Bitburg area (where the battalion had been stationed) from military to civil authority. The withdrawal was completed in 1955. On June 16, 1956, Captain Michel François Barthel retired from military service. Personal life In 1945, Barthel married his long-time sweetheart Anne-Sophie Schauss during the victory celebrations at the end of World War II. They went to live in the Hollerich Quarter of Luxembourg City. They had three children, Augustine Jerome, Georges Patrice, and Marceline Cécile. On June 30, 2007, Michel François Barthel passed away of heart failure at the age of 88. He was given a proper Catholic burial at the Cathedral of Our Lady in the city. Views Barthel was a Catholic and a conservative royalist who supported Grand Duchess Charlotte and the monarchy in general. His distrust of socialism and Communism made cooperation with left-wing resistance groups difficult during the war. Nevertheless, he took a hard line against antisemitism when expressed by his fellow resistance members. Barthel was a member of the Party of the Right before and during the war and the Christian Social People's Party after it. Equipment During the initial German invasion, Barthel used a Swedish Mauser M/1896 bolt action rifle and its M/1914 bayonet, the standard armament of the Gendarmes and Volunteers Corps. He also carried a Browning Hi-Power GP 35 semi-automatic pistol, which he used for the rest of his military service as well as his time in the resistance. When his militia group was armed by the newly-arrived American troops in 1944, he took an M1917 Enfield bolt-action rifle, and used it during the Battle of the Bulge. In the Korean War, he was first equipped with a Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.I and its No.4 Mk.II bayonet when attached to British troops, and an M1 Garand with M1 bayonet when with Americans. He also carried the Mk II fragmentation grenade.Category:Soldiers in World War II Category:Soldiers in the Korean War Category:Luxembourgish soldiers